Politics has become like a game of football in which the only thing that matters is that our side wins and nobody cares about the quality or even basic honesty of the game. Most of us have forgotten that we are citizens as well as partisans.

“Quit your boring job and find something you totally love!” […] This is insane advice. For most of us, not only are we unlikely to find what we love “out there”, but because our biology is in charge, if we do find something we “love”, it’s more likely to be lust or infatuation that we’re actually feeling. When reality kicks in and the realisation dawns that we don’t have the chops to cope, it will be too late for us to realise that we’re not going to make a living from the thing we thought we were in love with.

A theme park based on The Hunger Games is opening in Dubai, giving residents the chance to imagine a world with massive economic inequality where the wealthy ruling class kills the poor for their own entertainment.

“Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

It’s unfashionable these days to care about quantified self services like Strava. It has, in some parts, a bad reputation for those who can only see the segment-chasing alpha males. But for the majority of us who’ll never see a KOM or QOM and whose only competition is ourselves, Strava is a ledger of quiet achievement.

“Sure you could drink a reliable beer that tastes delicious,” continued the brewer, whose flagship beer is called Juice of Anus, “but where’s the sense of adventure in that? Would you rather look like a middle aged dad sipping on a Heineken that tastes lovely or a trendy go getter fighting back a brew that was made in someone’s bathtub and tastes like a tramp’s piss? I know which I’d rather be.”

The site is a collection of musings and asides, as well as quotes and links I find interesting and/or useful. I am a keen photographer and a fan of film and literature, and the site reflects my interests.